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Article SLAVE COUNTRIES. ← Page 2 of 5 →
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Slave Countries.
swear by his name as the most solemn of all asseverations : but , notwithstanding his shining qualities , he appears , to have entailed , by his ambition , lasting miseries on his country . During the long reign of his successor Bossa Ahadee , a cruel and ferocious tyrant , the countrywas harrassed and wasted by wars , foreign and domestic , in which ¦ multitudes we / e slain : but nothing fills the mind , of the reader with so much horroras , the sacrifices pf human victims at the annua !
, customs for the purpose of watering ( according to the country expression ) , the graves of the deceased royal family . ' That man should convert his wants and infirmities into subjects of pride , ostentation , ayid vanity , can excite no surprise in those who have considered his nature : but that a cool and deliberate slaughter of our ' fellow-crea .-tures should not only occasion a momentary joy and exultationbut
, be the source of delight on reflection , appears altogether strange and incredible ; yet , without supposing that . the Dahoman monarchs receive some pleasure from the contemplation of the monuments of their wrath , vengeance , and wanton cruelty , it is difficult to account for their passion for decorating the walls -of their houses and their ' apartments with the skulls and bones of the unhappy wretches who
have perished by their hands . In the reign of Adahoonzou , the successor of Bossa Ahadee , after the slaughter of the prisoners whom he had taken in war , their skulls were ordered to be applied to the decoration of the royal walls . The person , to whom the management of this business had been committed , having neglected to make a proper calculation of his
materials , had proceeded far in the work when he found that there would not be a sufficient number of skulls to adorn the whole palace : he therefore requested- permission to begin the . work anew , that he might , by placing them apart , complete the design inia regular manner : but the king would by no means give his consent to this proposal , observing " that he should soon find a sufficient quantity of Badagree heads to render the plan perfectly uniform . "
The operators therefore proceeded with the work till the skulls were all expended , when the defective part of the walls was measured , and a calculation made , by which it appeared that one hundred and twenty-seven was the number wanted to finish this extraordinary embellishment . The prisons , in which the wretched captives had been confinedwere accordingly thrown openand the requisite number
, , of devoted victims dragged forth to be slaughtered in cold blood , for this hellish purpose . Previously to their execution , / " the } ' - were informed that the heads brought home by the Agaow had not been found sufficient to garnish the palace , and that theirs were required to supply the deficiency ; This act of barbarity was- greatly applauded by all present .
To those persons who . fancy that the , wars between the African princes are carried on for the sole purpose of supplying the European ships with slaves , it mayrbe ' proper to remark , that , at this , time , there were six slave-ships in the , road of Whydah , that there was a great scarcity of trade , and that the price of a prime slave was little short of thirty pounds sterling .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Slave Countries.
swear by his name as the most solemn of all asseverations : but , notwithstanding his shining qualities , he appears , to have entailed , by his ambition , lasting miseries on his country . During the long reign of his successor Bossa Ahadee , a cruel and ferocious tyrant , the countrywas harrassed and wasted by wars , foreign and domestic , in which ¦ multitudes we / e slain : but nothing fills the mind , of the reader with so much horroras , the sacrifices pf human victims at the annua !
, customs for the purpose of watering ( according to the country expression ) , the graves of the deceased royal family . ' That man should convert his wants and infirmities into subjects of pride , ostentation , ayid vanity , can excite no surprise in those who have considered his nature : but that a cool and deliberate slaughter of our ' fellow-crea .-tures should not only occasion a momentary joy and exultationbut
, be the source of delight on reflection , appears altogether strange and incredible ; yet , without supposing that . the Dahoman monarchs receive some pleasure from the contemplation of the monuments of their wrath , vengeance , and wanton cruelty , it is difficult to account for their passion for decorating the walls -of their houses and their ' apartments with the skulls and bones of the unhappy wretches who
have perished by their hands . In the reign of Adahoonzou , the successor of Bossa Ahadee , after the slaughter of the prisoners whom he had taken in war , their skulls were ordered to be applied to the decoration of the royal walls . The person , to whom the management of this business had been committed , having neglected to make a proper calculation of his
materials , had proceeded far in the work when he found that there would not be a sufficient number of skulls to adorn the whole palace : he therefore requested- permission to begin the . work anew , that he might , by placing them apart , complete the design inia regular manner : but the king would by no means give his consent to this proposal , observing " that he should soon find a sufficient quantity of Badagree heads to render the plan perfectly uniform . "
The operators therefore proceeded with the work till the skulls were all expended , when the defective part of the walls was measured , and a calculation made , by which it appeared that one hundred and twenty-seven was the number wanted to finish this extraordinary embellishment . The prisons , in which the wretched captives had been confinedwere accordingly thrown openand the requisite number
, , of devoted victims dragged forth to be slaughtered in cold blood , for this hellish purpose . Previously to their execution , / " the } ' - were informed that the heads brought home by the Agaow had not been found sufficient to garnish the palace , and that theirs were required to supply the deficiency ; This act of barbarity was- greatly applauded by all present .
To those persons who . fancy that the , wars between the African princes are carried on for the sole purpose of supplying the European ships with slaves , it mayrbe ' proper to remark , that , at this , time , there were six slave-ships in the , road of Whydah , that there was a great scarcity of trade , and that the price of a prime slave was little short of thirty pounds sterling .